


Long Way Back Home

by Cookies_and_Chaos



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28576488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookies_and_Chaos/pseuds/Cookies_and_Chaos
Summary: Elated from how the fight at the LaRusso's ended, Eli couldn't understand why Demetri left the way he did. Written for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 11, "Eleven Dark Tunnels". Companion piece to'Too Many Broken Memories'
Relationships: Demetri (Cobra Kai) & Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Demetri (Cobra Kai)/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz
Comments: 14
Kudos: 80
Collections: 12 Days of Christmas Challenge 2020





	Long Way Back Home

"Eli."

Eli had forgotten just how many unspoken sentiments Demetri's mom could pack into one single word. He swallowed the lump in his throat. "Is Demetri in?"

"Is he expecting you?"

Eli shook his head. He hadn't seen or spoken to Demetri since the fight at the LaRusso house. Somewhere in all the chaos afterwards, Demetri had slipped out of the door without a word to anyone. All of Eli's messages and calls since then had gone unanswered.

"Wait here." Well, she pushed the door to rather than slamming it in his face, so with everything else that had happened recently, Eli was taking that as a win. He waited, not daring to move, and it felt as though an hour passed with him standing out in the cold. He knew from the nervous glances at his watch that it was more like three minutes.

The door opened again. "He says you can go up."

That was it. Demetri's mom left Eli at the bottom of the stairs and went back to what she had been doing before. The stairs loomed above Eli, extending into the darkness of the hallway above. How many times had he walked up them? Were there always so many of them, he didn't remember there being so many of them. The weight in his stomach grew with each step he took and by the time he reached Demetri's bedroom door, he thought he might be sick.

Eli reached for the handle. Hesitated. Should he knock? He'd never knocked before but where they friends who knocked now? With all that had happened, he erred on the side of caution and gently tapped on the door.

"Yeah."

No turning back now. He opened the door and stepped inside. "Hey."

Demetri had been sat at his computer but got up as Eli stepped inside. Eli had thought — had _hoped_ — that Demetri would light up and grin like he had at the LaRusso place when Eli asked if he wanted to team up. But Demetri didn't. He stepped back and nodded stiffly at him.

"You should have messaged to say you were coming," Demetri said.

"I did. I tried calling too but you didn't answer," Eli explained. Something seemed different about Demetri's room but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"So your solution was to just come by, was it?" Demetri sat on his bed, nearly as far from Eli as he could get.

"I just..." Eli didn't know what to do with his hands so he shoved them in his pockets. "I haven't heard from you since the night—"

"The night you, Tory, and all the others broke into Sam's house and assaulted us?" Demetri asked.

That hurt more than any punch Eli had ever taken and he struggled to form his reply. "I thought..."

"You thought what? That after beating on us and tormenting us for months that all was fixed because you said I'm sorry?" Demetri asked.

"Hey, this wasn't all on me, you know," Eli shot back and before he knew what he was doing he had taken a step towards Demetri. The way Demetri recoiled from his advance stopped him in his tracks, an awful sickness in his stomach as he realised that Demetri was afraid of him. Because he had become someone his best friend needed to fear, needed to be on guard around.

"I know." Demetri relaxed a little when Eli stepped back. "I stepped over a line at the party, that was really personal and I...I weaponised it because I was pissed at you. It was a dick move and I'm sorry. But that's the _point_ , Eli, a lot of shit happened. Yeah, we were to blame for some of it but you guys just fucking escalated it to...to this gang warfare that it never should have been."

"You told Tory that we were friends. That you'd watch my back." Eli bit his bottom lip to stop the damn thing wobbling.

"I put up a united front. If we're all going to join forces, Cobra Kai can't think there's any weakness to exploit." Demetri shook his head. "Eli, you _broke_ my arm. You beat the shit out of Nathaniel and stole our fundraising money, I assume you at least had the decency to still give it to Miguel. You became the same kind of shithead alpha douchebag that used to make our lives misery and you reveled in it. Did you really think a quick, 'I'm sorry for everything' was gonna make it all better?"

The shaking in Eli's knees started midway through Demetri's monologue and by the end, Eli knew if he didn't sit down, he would fall down. He sunk down on the end of Demetri's bed.

"I turned my back on them... I switched sides and helped you." Fuck, was he actually going to cry? There had been whispers in the back of his mind that he couldn't expect everything to just go back to how it was but he'd pushed them away. Now he had wished he'd listened to them.

"In the eleventh hour, Eli. And sure that's better than not at all but it doesn't take back everything you did," Demetri said, "what any of us did."

Eli couldn't bare to look at Demetri. This wasn't how he'd thought it would go. He'd thought they'd catch up on all the time they'd spent apart, maybe play some video games together or that Demetri would show him what he'd been working—

"Your medal..." Eli suddenly realised what was missing. There was a big gap where the display case with Demetri's medal and certificate had once been. Eli looked around the room with that fresh in his mind and his heart sank as he realised that everything that had anything to do with him was gone.

Demetri was watching him — Eli could see him out of the corner of his eye — but he didn't say anything. He was going to wait Eli out, see what he said next.

"Did you throw it out? Everything?" Eli asked.

Demetri didn't answer for so long that Eli wondered if he should ask again. Then Demetri leant down and reached under his bed. When he sat back up, he put the display case down on top of the duvet.

"Just couldn't stand to look at it."

Eli reached out and pulled the case towards himself. His was packed away in a box somewhere. His room was almost bare, another of Sensei Kreese's suggestions about how they should live Spartan lives and focus solely on the upcoming war. Jesus Christ, how had he gotten so fucking brainwashed.

He pushed the case back towards Demetri. "I suppose I deserve that."

"You still don't really get it do you?" Demetri picked up the case and set it gently on his desk. "I couldn't stand looking at it because it hurt. I loved you, Eli, and you just became unrecognisable."

"Don't say shit like that, man." Eli shifted uncomfortably.

"What? That I loved you? Why? Does your new Kreese approved version of masculinity not have space for that sort of thing?" Demetri stopped and shook his head. "You know what, I'm not going there. I think you'd better leave."

"So this is it? It can't go back?" Eli asked, buying himself some time because he still wasn't sure that his legs would hold if he stood up.

"It's not that. Daniel talks a lot about how forgiveness is an important part of moving on and being in balance," Demetri said, "and I do want to believe that you're going to go all Zuko on me and prove that you can change but it won't happen because of one night. It's going to take time."

Eli nodded and got up. He glanced at the display case on the desk. "Are you going to..."

Demetri looked at the case for a long time, then stood up and picked it up. He walked over to the space on the wall where it had been mounted and carefully set it back on the hook. When he looked back at Eli, he didn't speak, just offered a small smile and a sharp nod.

Eli raised a hand in a gesture of goodbye and left Demetri's room. The stairs seemed even longer going back down, weighed down by the guilt he wanted to get off of his chest. He reached the front door and wondered if he should call out a goodbye to Demetri's mom, then decided he had better not. The brightness of the winter morning made him squint as he stepped back out into the daylight and pulled the door shut behind him. He couldn't say what prompted him to look over his shoulder as he walked back to his motorbike but he was glad he did because it meant he caught Demetri watching him leave. Eli allowed himself a small smile. He may have a fucking long way to go to get back to what he had once had with Demetri, but at least there was some goddamn light at the end of this tunnel.


End file.
